Richard Payne

Richard is a European and UK Patent Attorney. He joined J A Kemp from another leading patent firm in 2024 as an Associate and is based in the firm’s London office.

Richard works in the biotechnology sector, with a particular focus in plant sciences. During his time in the profession he has also worked on a diverse variety of subject matter including enzyme engineering, antibody and peptide-based therapeutics, and antisense compounds. Richard has experience in handling patent prosecution in Europe and co-ordinating patent portfolios globally. He has also handled the co-ordination of prosecution for pan-European portfolios of supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) for key commercial products.

Richard graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry. Richard also has a PhD in plant metabolic engineering from his time at the John Innes Centre, where his research contributed to the elucidation of vinblastine and vincristine biosynthesis in the medicinal plant Catharanthus roseus. Before moving into the world of intellectual property, he conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford, focussing on the structural elucidation of membrane transport proteins, and was also involved in undergraduate teaching.